The Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 replaces the Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues and the Virtual 2 bridge model. Its Alnico 2 magnets allow the DiMarzio DP409 pickup to work very well in the neck position as well, for Strat players who want a very warm, round sound.

The DP409 pickup is recommended for bridge but can also be used in neck and middle.

Tech Talk: The same technology that allowed us to create the pure vintage Stratocaster sound of the Area '58 can also be used to design a much heavier guitar pickup. The Heavy Blues 2 has more mids and lows while still possessing outstanding pick attack. This also makes the DP409 an excellent guitar pickup for the arpeggios and sweep picking classical metal players prefer, because it does not become muddy even with high gain.

A good upgrade for more clarity in your sound. This pickup can be placed in any of the 3 slots and will give a good vintage sound with a little "more" than your original pickup has. It gets rid of the annoying 60 cycle "hum", too. I put the units in the bridge and the neck slots-pleasingly quiet! The pickup retains what you like (sound wise) from your original, but with greater clarity and slightly more guts. It reacts well to distortion too. However, if you are looking for a raging metal sound, this is not the pickup for you!

A pickup was needed that retained a good strat-y high end while being totally quiet. The pickup it replaced sounded good but was real buzzy. This vintage pickup solved that problem. The high output Alnico II magnets clip nicely when pushed, but clean up well when you back off the volume.

I had 3 of them installed in my Fender FRS Strat without the reverse wound in the middle, and the tone is great in all 5 positions. Now my Strat sounds like a Strat especially in the bridge and neck positions. The tone reminds me of the 50's and 60's tone - but with more with strength, but yet very transparent and applicable for any time. I am very happy with these pickups - well worth the time and the money!Great tone in all 5 positions!Very valuable to me because of the tone that they produce!

Really unbelievable, I use it in the neck position on a strat, no noise, thick juicy output and tone, really made my strat come alive! I would recommend it to anyone who loves the physical feel of a strat, but is tired of noisy, thin sounding pickups. Before I bought this beastly pickup, I was shopping for custom guitars, now I honestly feel like I don't need any other axe, this changed my guitar DRASTICALLY. It blends really well with the stock middle position single coil, and it records super well too. LOVE IT!Well the main feature I wanted was noisless operation, and it gave it to me, this thing is quieter than humbuckers!!Fantastic quality, no compromise...The value is great, The other noisless offerings are cheaper, but this pickup really blew my mind.

I recently changed out some Fender Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups for some Dimarzio Virtual Vintages. This pickup came in the used set that I got. I placed it in the neck position, and it is phenomenal. It is fat, warm, and yet has enough high end to not be muddy. It sounds incredible with clean and slightly overdriven tones, but also works for high gain.

I have a Virtual Solo in the bridge, but it's too bright compared to this pickup in the neck position, so I'm still searching there, but I'll keep this in the neck position. Love it.

Just like few who have used it already. You might find this pickup too trebley and spikey (which I experienced also). The key to make this pickup sound good on the bridge is to used .033uf capacitor. First requirement, make sure to used it on a alder body strat with good resonance and sounds fat acoustically. You might find the pickup sounds thin if you use it on cheapo twangy squire strat. Again using it on fat resonating regular strat will bring good results. Previously I was disappointed but after I tweaked it, it balances well with Area 61 on the neck and middle. Smooth sustain on bridge and nice on distortion.

I recently added two of these pups to my neck and middle positions of my alder body Strat. They are perfect for rock and blues, clear and crisp when clean, and fantastic with overdrive, distortion and high gain. I had Choppers in the neck and mid and I found that the neck Chopper, while great with clean, would get muddy with high gain and overdrive. I was hesitant to change them out, but I am glad I did. I have a heavy blues style (Bonamassa, Gary Moore etc) and these sound great and NOT EVEN CLOSE TO MUDDY sounding. I actually keep the tone on 7 or 8 in the neck position! I recommend 500k volume and tone pots with these. With regard to output level, they match well with a Super Distortion S in the bridge, which is what I have, and I am sure any other high output pickup would match as well. I cannot tell you how a Heavy Blues 2 would sound in the bridge because I haven't tried that, but I am sure a set of three would be fantastic as well.